


An Early Visit

by inndrid



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Gen, The Adventure Zone: Amnesty, Trans Duck Newton, flying by the seat of my pants baybee, idk how to tag lol, idk what I'm doing lol, indruck, no beta readers we die like men
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-15
Updated: 2021-03-04
Packaged: 2021-03-17 15:34:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,113
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29474037
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/inndrid/pseuds/inndrid
Summary: The abomination is here, and it's taken everyone by surprise.
Relationships: Aubrey Little & Duck Newton, Indrid Cold & Duck Newton, Indrid Cold/Duck Newton
Comments: 2
Kudos: 5





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> As of publishing this the first time, I have no plans as to how (or if) I'll be continuing this, and I have no plot outline beyond the first chapter lmao. 
> 
> ALSO cw for something that could be easily likened to a panic attack, although that wasn't how I was originally intending it when I wrote it down.

"There isn't much time," Indrid gasps into the phone. Visions whirl, pound relentlessly behind his eyes as he attempts to force the words out. He can hear Duck trying to say something on the other end of the line, trying to ask him what's going on, but most of the sound is overwhelmed by the blood ponding in the seer's ears. 

"Indrid- Indrid- hey, take a deep breath, man."  
Duck's voice finally pierces the haze surrounding Indrid's head, and for once in the past few minutes, his thoughts do clear up for a moment. Shit. Shitshitshitshitshit- all those decades of training had failed him once more. Seers were supposed to relay the future without emotion, voice what was about to happen clearly and easily. If his teachers were here now, they'd- well. They weren't here now, were they? 

"Hey, 'drid, what's goin on?"  
Duck's controlled words tug him back to what's currently happening. A bead of sweat trickles down Indrid's temple.

"Duck, you- you have to come get me out of here," Indrid finally voices into the phone. "I can't stay here- I can't-" the sea of visions threaten to overwhelm him again, and he grasps at the threads of what he'd once known. Grounding techniques. Right. 5 things you can see, 4 things you can hear, 3 things you can... He doesn't have time for this. 

"The abomination, it's, it's here, Duck," he chokes out instead.

"Oh, shit, it's early- okay, uh- what weapons should I bring, or, people, or-"

"Just need, just need another person, bring someone with you, be quick." Indrid slams the phone down, willing himself to not have another panic attack. 

He tries to decipher the cacophony of visions torrenting through his mind, but it's like trying to pick apart 20 different strings of yarn, after they've been sitting in a box for years and have become a knotted mess. 

He finally resolves to shut off his foresight entirely, but it doesn't work- not like usual. Instead of an airtight door closing, it's like he had put a mesh sheet over a broken fire hydrant; slowed somewhat, but not nearly enough for him to be able to get his bearings. 

As the seer shudders in a ball on the couch and stares foggily at the locked door, he hopes to the high heavens that whatever the abomination is, it isn't incorporeal. 

\--- 

Duck scrambles out the door with Aubrey, muttering explitives as his fingers fail to pull on his shoes with the urgency he wishes they would. As he slams the door to Mama's rusty truck and keys the ignition, he explains what little context he has to his companion.

"He just called, sounded real panicked, and told me I had to come over Now. That the new 'Bom-'Bom's already here, n' that it's comin' for him." Aubrey's fingertips fiddle with sparks, a nervous habit that Duck's noticed over their friendship, and she stays silent for a few seconds as they pull out of the gravel driveway.

"Duck, the next 'Bom-'Bo- the next Abomination wasn't s'posed to come for at least a few more weeks," she replies with wide eyes. Duck nods grimly. The Abominations had recently been becoming more erratic, more dangerous, o'course, but... Never quite by This much. 

The rest of the ride passes in a tense silence. It's early in the morning, early enough for the winding roads of Kepler to be vacant and for the moon to still be hanging high in the sky. Yet, Duck's heart pounds as though it's forgotten the peaceful slumber he had been in not a half an hour ago. 

They pull the truck up a few hundred yards from the ancient Winnebago.

"Careful Aubs, I dunno what this thing is and I don't want to get caught off guard any more than we already have been." 

"Yeah, of course," she answers in a low voice as she pops open the door. Duck's own door creaks painfully loudly in the otherwise silent forest.

He's left the truck's headlights on the illuminate their short path, but his hair still stands on end and he can see Aubrey staring into the pitch black forest nervously, head swiveling at every quickened footstep. Sparks are still dancing about her fingers as they make their way to Indrid's place of residence and Duck knocks softly on the door. A silent moment passes, and he tries the handle.

Locked.

Aubrey steps to his right and tries to peer through the shuttered window.  
"Hey, Indrid, we're here to ah, pick you up," she calls as Duck taps on the door again.

This gets them a response- a quiet shuffling, and then the screech of the deadbolt unlocking before the door opens a crack to reveal Indrid's bespectacled face.  
The door opens wider, and Duck holds back a grimace when he gets a better look at the seer.

The man's face, long and pale, looks damp- from tears or perspiration (or both), Duck can't tell- and his silver hair is messier than usual. His fingers are trenbling and his chest is rising and falling at a noticeably rapid pace. 

"Thank Fuck," the words are shaky as he carefully steps down the single creaking stair to the pine-covered ground. 

"Indrid, you okay? What happened?" Aubrey asks as they hurry back to the truck. "You sounded- well, Duck told me you sounded pretty spooked," she adds. 

Indrid only shakes his head and mutters something incomprehensible while massaging a temple. 

It's a good thing the night is somewhat warm despite it being mid Fall, Duck notes as he buckles the seatbelt. Indrid is wearing a stained white tank top as always, despite his lanky frame being particularly poorly suited for the cold. He notices that the man shivers despite the seemingly pleasant temperatures, and turns on the truck's heater as they retreat from the mobile home. 

He glances back through the rearview mirror upon hearing a faint whimper emitted from Indrid, and notices Aubrey's sparking fingers fizzle out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yes i know i have a bad habit of using hyphens to demonstrate pauses in every single sentence 💔 thanks for reading anyways, babes


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They have a minor run in. Indrid still has a hell of a migraine.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WOAH look at me having motivation to write a second chapter! I don't think I've ever written this much in my life! /hj

Indrid's head pounds. He knows something bad is coming, but he can't forsee what. He doesn't know what will happen in the next few moments, and feels helpless because of it- if he can't see, what good is he? What good were those long decades of training?

The incessant rattling and vibrating of the truck isn't aiding his cause, either. It feels like his head is being split open with a hammer, and he can barely force a quiet whisper of warning out from between his lips before his stomach drops and his visions finally go silent. And That's what really scares him, panic bubbling up in his chest as he realizes at the same moment that Duck is staring, wide-eyed, In the rearview mirror. He risks a look out the back window and takes a sharp inhale at the sight as Duck starts yelling at Aubrey to do something.

A cloud made up of small forms and shiny eyes is flying towards the truck at an alarming rate. Indrid can't quite make out what he's looking at, between the darkness and the pounding behind his eyes, but it's absolutely massive compared to any other Abomination he's encountered before. It makes his eyes focus oddly (actually, was that just the migraine?) and he has to look away, but he knows that this thing, whatever it is, is almost certainly the culprit behind his breakdown in his Winnebago.

But his train of thought is broken just as quickly as it passes through his mind as gravity slams him back against the seat.

\-----

"Hey, uh, Aubrey? Now would be a good time for you to shoot some fire at it or some shit!" Duck yells, flooring the gas pedal. Aubrey stares at her hands and doesn't do anything, for a moment. "Aubrey!" Duck repeats, more urgently.

"I- I- Duck, I-" she stammers out, an utterly horrified expression crossing her face as she looks between her own trembling fingers and the Abomination gliding ever closer. "My- my magic isn't working, Duck," she almost whispers. Duck curses loudly in response.

\-----

Indrid is helpless to do nothing but stare out the window and wonder why his abilities had deserted him. His head spins and he feels dizzy- his thoughts are almost deafiningly silent despite his panicked and yelling companions and the roaring of the truck. The steady streams of visions he was so used to hearing, so used to feeling were... Gone. Like a white noise he had been so used to hearing his whole life, abruptly turned off without warning.

Suddenly, the seer is thrown against the side of the car as Duck turns out onto the main road. Another car pulls dangerously close to them, honks angrily, and the sensation (or rather, lack thereof) is gone.

He remembers his pounding migraine and leans his head into his lap, but immediately notices that his foresight has returned back to its normal self. Not tangled up or overwhelming, just a steady stream of inconsequential predictions that he's so used to experiencing.

Duck also seems to have calmed down.

"Hey, 'drid, you alright?" He hears the other man ask from in front of the steering wheel.

"Y-yes, I think so," Indrid forces out. This was one of the worst headaches he'd had in some time, and he's holding back some choice words as Duck and Aubrey discuss what had just happened louder than he wishes they would.

\-----

"Hey, Duck? What the hell was that?" Aubrey demands once they've both caught their breath a bit more.

"Your guess is as good as mine- Indrid might know somethin', but uh-" Duck glances back through the rearview mirror. "I don't think he's in a great spot right now, dont wanna push him."

"Understatement of the year," Aubrey mutters. Duck has to agree. The thin man in the backseat of the truck looks absolutely wrecked, shoulders hunched and shaking and head held in his hands.

"Hey, ah- Duck, would you happen to have a water bottle?" Indrid croaks quietly. Duck glances around the cab, but Aubrey's faster, snatching an unopened bottle from the side door and handing it to Duck with a wink. He returns the look with an unamused stare, and passes it back to the seer. Aubrey gives him a fake-annoyed sniff.

The whole lodge had been practically shipping Duck with Indrid for the past few weeks, much to his mortification- sure, Duck was the only person at the lodge that Indrid would willingly call, but did that really mean anything in that specific... Sphere of relationships? He just happened to be the person that Indrid trusted the most, was that so strange?

Duck shakes the relatively unimportant thought from his mind as they pull up in front of Amnesty Lodge and he removes the keys from the ignition. Aubrey rushes to meet Mama at the door, leaving Duck to help Indrid out of the car.

"You **sure you're okay?** " Duck asks again, Indrid's own voice overlapping with his.

"Yes, I assure you, Duck Newton, I am alright," he answers quickly.Duck doesn't think he _looks_ okay, but doesn't press it. Maybe this was why Indrid only calls him- he isn't quite as... Insistent as the other members of the Pine Guard.

Aubrey, Duck, and Indrid sit on the couches in the main floor of the Lodge while they relay what had happened to Mama.

"This is... Concerning," Mama responds simply when they finish. "You don't suppose that the Abomination is what caused Aubrey's magic to go out?" Aubrey's eyes widen at that.

"I- I dunno, Mama, maybe I was just- just panickin, is all?" It sounds like Aubrey's trying to convince herself just as much as she's trying to convince Mama. But Indrid shakes his head.

"It was the Abomination doing it, I'm almost sure of it. It messed with my future sight as well." He pushes up his glasses slightly to rub his eyes, and Duck sees dark bags beneath them. "It's been messing with me for a few days, if I must be honest. Must have been hanging around before attacking anything," he adds with a grimace. "I couldn't see- Well. I noticed that there were quite a few... Blank spots in my foresight. It's been giving me a bit of a hard time."

"If ya were having troubles with your foresight, why didn't you _tell someone_ , ya dipshit?" Duck moans in a not-unkind manner- he was concerned for the man, goddamnit! Indrid's secrecy had far more potential to hurt himself than anyone at the lodge- glancing back at Indrid's sunken face, Duck amends that it _had_ ended up hurting him.

It is at this moment that Barclay pokes his head around the corner of a doorway, saving Indrid from having to come up with a decent explanation.

"I don't think we have any rooms open here," Barclay says in a tired voice. Indrid doesn't respond beyond a faint sigh, and all 5 of them sit in an awkward silence for a few seconds. They have all seemingly silently agreed that Indrid wouldn't be able to return to his camper for the night, but where could he go if there wasn't a place at the Lodge?

"I... Guess he could come stay at my apartment for a bit," Duck finally says, rubbing his eyes. He isn't against the idea, but moreso against the tripled amounts of teasing he Knows he'll recieve from the Sylvans because of this... Occurrence.

"I don't want to intrude on you, Duck-"

"No, I wouldn't want you to have to go back to that damned Winnebago after what just happened, and I don't think Mama's too fond of the idea of housing an extra guest on the lobby's couches," Duck assures him with a somewhat forced chuckle. Damn, but he's tired.

Indrid stands up slowly. "I... Suppose it's settled, then."

Duck glares at Aubrey's poorly-hidden grin on their way out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading 💖
> 
> Friendly reminder that i have not laid any of the plot out beyond what I've written so I've got just as much of an idea abt what's happening as you do lmao


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> And they were roommates

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here we have another case of me projecting onto indrid a little too much

The drive over to Duck's apartment is awkwardly silent. As they pull into the parking lot, he can feel a bead of sweat slide down his back from the blasting heater. They don't exchange any words until Indrid closes his apartment door behind him and Duck winces at his less-than-tidy house. 

"I, uh, wasn't plannin' for any company, sorry about the mess." 

Indrid shakes his head. 

"No, it's fine- I'm... Thankful that you would allow me to stay here in the first place," he reassures him, "I have no room to judge, anyways," he chuckles. The air becomes a little lighter. 

Duck shuffles towards the couch with some blankets he has retrieved from the closet, intending to make up a spot for Indrid so they could both go back to bed, but very suddenly realizes that his eyelids are no longer heavy. 

"No, I'm not tired either," Indrid responds before Duck has the chance to say anything out loud. Duck laughs. 

"Hah, I suppose not," he says, dumping the blankets unceremoniously on the couch. "Could I interest you in a coffee, then?" Duck pads into the kitchen, his cat sleepily poking her head out of Duck's bedroom to see what the racket is. 

"Mhm- Oh! I didn't know you had a cat," Duck hears Indrid say as he starts the pot. "She's a pretty thing," he adds. 

"Yeah, her name's Wynnie- found her out back one day and didn't have the heart to leave her," he remembers with a smile. "She's kept me company for a couple years now." 

"I'm glad you haven't been all alone in this dark and dreary wasteland," Indrid quips, a grin evident in his voice. 

Huh. Duck couldn't remember ever hearing Indrid crack a joke before. 

"You wouldn't happen to have any good movies in this apartment of yours?" 

"D'pends on who you are- Ned'd say I've got nothing worth watching, but I'm a fan of Princess Mononoke myself," Duck calls through the doorway, getting two mugs out of the cupboard and filling them. He walks back into the living room to find Indrid sitting back on the sofa, Wynnie sprawled out on the man's lap and kneading his sweatpants contentedly. 

"It would appear she has taken a liking to me," he states. Duck snorts. 

"You think?" He hands Indrid the coffee, who takes a sip and sets it on the side table. "She's usually pretty damn nervous around newcomers. Maybe it's got to do with your Sylvan blood," he theorizes. "People are always talking about how cats have a 'sixth sense' or some shit." 

Indrid responds with a sound that could only be compared to a chirp, and immediately starts, jolting Wynnie up off her side. He drags a hand down his face. "Here I was, thinking I'd left that particular sound effect back in the 1800's," he mutters. "Being a moth has some... Interesting side effects, I'll admit." 

Duck is hiding a grin behind his hand. "N-no, it's all good," he chokes out, laughter bubbling its way up his throat. 

Indrid's face visibly flushes red, but he doesn't express any embarrassment otherwise. 

"Ah- anyways, what was that about Princess... Monkey?" The seer busies himself with luring Wynnie back to his lap, and Duck bends down to look in the cabinet under the TV with a chuckle. 

"This!" He slides a case out from the shelf triumphantly after a few seconds, pops it open, and puts the disk in the player. The two men settle back to watch, commenting about movie periodically, but mostly just sitting. But both pairs eyelids grow progressively more heavy (despite the coffee), until no one is conscious to watch the movie except for Wynnie, still lounging on a sleeping Indrid's lap.

\-----

Indrid's eyelids rise slowly, until he remembers where he is and they fly open with a jolt. He notices Duck as the larger man shifts in his sleep, sprawled across the cushions and halfway covering Indrid's legs where his cat had previously been.

He stares at Duck nervously, not wanting to disturb him but also not wanting to be stuck underneath him when he wakes up, which will most likely lead to a somewhat awkward morning. Indrid quickly waves away the other possible futures when his face starts heating up. 

It's really nothing short of a miracle that his glasses hadn't fallen off while he had been asleep- they are perched precariously on the tip of his nose, and he carefully wiggles a hand out from underneath Duck's arm to push the lenses up. He notices Wynnie poke her head out from around the couch. 

"You planned this, didn't you," he whispers through his teeth at the feline, and then laughs quietly at himself. He's fully aware of The Lodge's... Preoccupation with him and Duck, but tries not to let Duck know that. It's less awkward that way- and even if he Did have a romantic interest in the man (and, he adds, he does Not), it wouldn't work out- a sylvan and a human with two wildly different lifespans were far from a perfect match. 

He conveniently ignores the nature of Aubrey's and Dani's relationship, and instead painstakingly slides out from underneath Duck while doing his best to leave the man undisturbed. 

He starts to walk into the kitchen, steps guided by morning light drifting hazily through the curtained windows, but is halted as a shiver rips through his body. He looks back at the couch, and briefly recalls the warmth of Duck's body before pushing the thought away. He snatches one of the blankets off of the edge of the couch's arm instead, wrapping himself up in a fluffy blue one. This will do just fine. 

He pads back into the kitchen, Wynnie on his heels, and starts the coffee pot- a polite thing to do, he supposes, even when in someone else's house. He's searching the cabinets fruitlessly for a mug, when he hears footsteps behind him. 

"G'mornin." Indrid spins around to see a seemingly half-asleep Duck in the doorway. 

"Ah- hello, Duck Newton," Indrid chirps, flinching once again at his vocal pitch. God damnit, was that habit really back? 

"Just Duck- no need to keep on 'Duck Newton'-in me, man. Feels like I'm talkin to Minerva." 

"Minerva?" 

"She's- well- shit, never mind. Doesn't matter." 

Indrid watches him curiously, but doesn't press. There aren't many futures where he would have been able to weevil the information out of him anyways, and Duck has, so far, been courteous enough to leave Indrid's own personal matters alone. 

"Thanks for startin the coffee, 'drid," Duck adds, beelining for one of the cupboards Indrid had yet to check. 

"Uh- yes, I thought you might... Appreciate it." 

Indrid suddenly feels light-headed, the normally steady stream of visions seeming to skip like a rock thrown across a lake. He stumbles back a step, dropping the blanket he had been wrapped in, and the _thunk_ of his heels on the linoleum floor makes Duck look back at him. Indrid's breath catches for a moment as he recalls feeling this exact same way previous to last night's attack. But the sensation fades away as quickly as it had arrived, leaving him shaking but unharmed. It still takes some concentration to stay on his feet though, and he supports himself on the counter. 

"Uh- hey, man, you okay?" Duck crosses the tiny kitchen and holds out a hand. "You're lookin mighty unsteady." 

Indrid takes the offer, and partially leans on the other man as he leads him back to the couch. 

"Yes, I... I'm fine, Duck New- Duck," he corrects himself. 

**"You don't look fine,"** Indrid's voice overlaps with Duck's. 

"I assure you, it was just a... Recollection of previous events." And it is the truth, at least partly, but they both know that's not the sole cause of Indrid almost falling over in Duck's kitchen. 

The larger man sighs dubiously, eyebrows raised, and returns to the kitchen to retrieve his coffee. 

As he withdraws, Indrid wonders if he'll ever have the strength to open up to anyone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always, thank you for reading :D
> 
> Constructive criticism is also highly appreciated if you have any tips!


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We discover some of Indrid's fun and absolutely-not-traumatic backstory

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Posting this at 10:30 pm instead of in the morning bc i just finished it and the end of the chapter makes me feel like a literary genius. 
> 
> Also sorry about the weird formatting if you're reading on desktop, I have typed all chapters so far (including this one) in my Notes app so it's really best suited to a phone screen whoops

Indrid is once again sitting in Duck's passenger seat, but this time returning to Amnesty Lodge. Duck had gotten a call from Ned ushering the two men over to talk more about the Abomination encounter now that it wasn't the dead of night, and both men were more than content to not sit silently in Duck's apartment all afternoon. 

The radio is playing quietly, but Indrid can't identify the song, nor hear the lyrics well enough to pick out what words are being sung. He stares absentmindedly our the window instead, taking in scenery that he rarely gets to see outside his visions. 

It's not quite the same. Seeing it in real time, it's both vivid and relaxing. The trees rush by the car in an almost rhythmic manner, and Indrid is almost feeling sleepy by the time the car rolls onto the gravel driveway in front of the Lodge. 

Aubrey steps out the door to greet them almost immediately after Duck pulls the keys from the ignition, and approaches Duck for a friendly hug. After breaking the short embrace, she steps towards Indrid with open arms, and he would have been surprised had he not been a seer. Physical touch was not something he encountered often, living secluded in his Winnebago. 

Despite his hesitance, he wraps an arm lightly around the magician only to be greeted with a mixture of emotion, both pleasant and uncomfortable. He restrains himself from flinching backwards and instead gives Aubrey a (somewhat forced) polite smile before following her through the doors of the Lodge. 

"Hey there Duck, Indrid," Mama calls across the combination lobby/lounge. 

"Howdy, Mama! Where'r we meetin'?" Duck asks. "Looks like everyone's here." He nods to Ned and Barclay, who are conversing quietly over the bar while Barclay stirs a pot. Stern doesn't seem to be hanging around, which Indrid is silently grateful for; he'd heard about the agent from the folks at the Lodge, and had become instantaneously more aware of his less-than-noteworthy past; his direct involvement in the Silver Bridge incident had not come without cost, and he'd had to lay low for a long time. 

"Just the usual spot." Mama crosses the wide room, indicating for Ned, Barclay, and Aubrey to follow as she leads the group to the Pine Guard's pseudo-base. Barclay shuts the door behind them as she starts to talk and scribble something on the whiteboard at the far end of the cramped area. 

"Sounds like we got a new BomBom on our hands, and by the looks of how it's gone so far, we have our work cut out for us." 

Indrid sits on a metal folding chair in the dim corner of the office, and the meeting continues for a good thirty minutes before he feels the need to add anything to the discussion. 

"It seems to block sylvan magic," he murmurs during a brief pause in the mostly constant back-and-forth of suggestions. All eyes immediately turn towards him, and he resists the urge to shrink back into silence. "Or, at least it certainly messes with my foresight, and it seemed to halt Aubrey's magic yesterday evening," he instead continues. "Regardless, I'd be careful about what sort of magic tricks you try and utilize to take it down." The room is silent for another moment. 

"...'drid, what exactly do you mean by 'messes with your foresight'?" Duck finally asks. "Like, you can't see it or what?" 

Indrid ponders how to answer this question for a brief pause. "I... Cannot utilize my seerly abilities when I am near it," he clarifies, knowing full well that isn't all of it but still unsure as to how much he was comfortable sharing. 

The room bursts back into discussion, but Indrid's thoughts wander. Why _was_ he so hesitant to share? He's not completely sure about the cause himself, but it feels... Dirty, almost, to admit the weakness. What the word "dirty" means in this context, he can't pin down. 

"Hey, Indrid, could you possibly foresee how we kill it? Like, look into the future for ideas?" Aubrey's voice pulls him from his cloud of thoughts. 

"Ah, no, it sadly doesn't work that way," he chuckles. "There's no reason you'd be able to utilize that tactic in the future, unless you had the idea right now, yes?" Aubrey nods as he continues. "And besides, I... Do not think I am able to read futures where this particular Abomination is involved," he adds. 

More rapid-fire conversation ensues, and Indrid melts back into the background.

\-----

In the end, the Pine Guard decided to monitor the Abomination for a bit longer before making any further plans. But almost a week has passed since the incident, with no more sightings of the monster. Which is fascinating, because it was, decidedly, one of the higher-profile Abominations that had appeared- Even Indrid has only felt its presence once in the past 4 days, and the Guard is feeling somewhat nervous about the lack of appearances that the new Abomination has made.

Which is why Indrid is now sitting in the forest, seemingly alone, and resisting the urge to glance about warily. 

The Pine Guard is nearby, of course, but they had somehow convinced the man to act as bait because he is the last (and only) person who has been attacked so far. 

Indrid is attempting to read a book held in front of him by his own spindly fingers, but finds himself rereading the same page over and over without processing it. He doesn't recall feeling this tense in a long while, but represses the emotion from manifesting in a manner noticeable to others. 

He has never liked being coddled or seeming weak or emotional, a suspected byproduct of his upbringing as a court seer. 

_"Don't let the future influence your mind, and if it does, don't let others know it."_

Despite his faliure to follow these instructions only a few days ago, Indrid can feel them burning in the back of his mind. The previous Court Seer had trained Indrid themself, had turned him into a model seer, and the decades of training and (metaphorical) beating of behaviours into his brain were still there despite yet more decades of being decidedly unpressured to follow these guidelines on Earth. 

Indrid still can't quite place what he's feeling now, but supposes that a century of emotional repression would do that do you- and there's only so much unlearning that an unmotivated recluse could achieve. 

Indrid's train of thought cuts off with a start as a bird flutters nearby, and his stomach sinks into a pit as he comes to realise that the forest has grown uncharacteristically silent. 

He had initially dismissed the plan as a bogus idea, but it seemed that perhaps it had more merit than he had given it credit for. 

Indrid quickly forgets about his previous musings as his ears buzz and a wave of nausea rolls over him. His seerly vision sputters and glitches in an uncomfortable manner, and one of his hands flies up to his forehead. 

He had forgotten how painful the earlier encounter had been, but he remembers now as a migraine slams his skull and he drops his novel in his lap. But this was worse than last time, he realizes hazily. He had at least been able to somewhat cope last time- now he's barely able to hold a stable thought, despite no longer having the distraction of the future playing through the back of his mind. 

Indrid is once more struck by the feeling of deafening silence as his foresight comes to a halt, a river drying up to reveal a dusty gulch faster than the seer can wholly comprehend. He once again latches onto his grounding techniques, half surprised he still returns to them, because (apart from the previous encounter) he hadn't had to utilize them since he had been very young. 

Five things you can see... 

He sees the swathe of forest around him, of course. 

He sees what must be hundreds, thousands of birds. They catch his attention now, swirling and weaving together in a wild-yet-coordinated effort. The dark cloud of small, black birds is almost mesmerizing to watch, and he probably would have appreciated the sight of it hadn't been the cause of his crippling migraine (among other things, of course). 

He sees... Aubrey and Ned working in tandem, doing... something, back to back. He can't quite discern what, but his senses feel foggy now. 

He sees... He sees... Mama yelling something across the small clearing. Is she yelling at him? 

He sees... 

Something tugs on his arm, and Indrid can only faintly adknowledge it. 

He sees... 

He sees...

Nothing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank u for reading 🥺 
> 
> If you sense me projecting an unhealthy amount onto indrid... No you dont


End file.
